


withdraw; regroup; surrender

by Bushwah



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Fanwork of Fanwork, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-03
Updated: 2019-08-03
Packaged: 2020-07-29 23:42:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20087167
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bushwah/pseuds/Bushwah
Summary: He's really very good at lying to himself.





	withdraw; regroup; surrender

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [These Gifts That You Have Given Me](https://archiveofourown.org/works/4781201) by [thearrogantemu](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thearrogantemu/pseuds/thearrogantemu). 

“You _gave up_. Took the easy road. You set yourself a challenge—oh, I’ll try this ‘being good’ thing—and you turned back at the first obstacle. You set yourself a challenge—oh, I’ll make a gift from which these Elves will benefit—you turned back. You tried the screwdriver and when you didn’t succeed on the very first try you set out to forge a hammer—the biggest hammer there ever was—to break the puzzle just because you couldn’t solve it when you tried. You used to be arrogant. No longer. This is something else.  
  
“There was a time when I wanted to ask you _why_? But I am certain, now, that I would not have gotten an answer with more substance than a platitude. You wouldn’t admit it, even to yourself, but I know–this is you giving up. This is your defeat. If you continue down this path, all that awaits is the utmost destruction of yourself by your own hand.  
  
“It is not too late, Sauron, to become Annatar in truth. It is not too late to renounce the Ring—”  
  
“Renounce the Ring!” Annatar had been listening attentively to Tyelperinquar’s words, for wrong though they might be they were at least—a thinkable sort of error, understandable; the words of a displeased and misled friend and not the careful deceptions of an enemy. But this was so absurd a suggestion that he was moved only to laughter. “You think too little of my greatest work, that it might be cast aside so lightly. Well—there is yet time to educate you.”  
  
He shook his head. “_Renounce the Ring_, indeed.”


End file.
